News and Events

Vegetable gardeners are closing up shop for winter but tree lovers are pulling out their shovels to kick off the planting season.

TreesLouisville has a parking lot full of saplings that will help rebuild Louisville’s canopy. The four truckloads of trees will find new homes at several planting events on the 2018/19 calendar. The first one was Saturday, Nov. 3: TreeFest at The Flea Off Market.

A number of trees were installed in a newly depaved section of the parking lot at Fresh Start Growers Supply, which will grow to provide shade to Flea Off Market attendees and pedestrians along Baxter Avenue as well as intercept storm water runoff and reduce the urban heat island effect. Participants were able to help in the tree planting process and had the opportunity to take home free one-gallon container trees provided by the Louisville Metro Division of Community Forestry.

“We’ve been working with companies and schools to plant more trees,” said Cindi Sullivan, executive director of TreesLouisville. “TreeFest was a chance to get more homeowners involved.”

More of the trees from the four truckloads went to a tree giveaway sponsored by CSX at YouthBuild on Nov. 10.

TreesLouisville’s third November event was a partnership planting with Waterfront Botanical Gardens on Saturday, Nov. 17 from 9:30-11am at the Beargrass Creek Greenway. The two organizations are using trees to plant a green buffer to filter runoff from roads and parking lots before it lands in Beargrass Creek.

“We’re providing the trees and the gardeners are providing the volunteer labor,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan has been working with teachers and principals throughout Jefferson County to get more trees in school yards. She is also working with Louisville employers. Sullivan has worked with public and private funders to make strategic investments in the city’s tree population. Her goal is to make rebuilding the urban forest a team effort. Sullivan said that collaboration is the key to planting enough trees to keep the city green and healthy.

“If everyone in Louisville planted one tree, we’d be out of a job!” she said.